Bandos & alumni highlighted in Fanfare

The Fall 2017 issue of Fanfare, the magazine of UMass Music & Dance, features a number of UMass band staff, bando and alumni accomplishments!

Jon Schmidt, a music major who performs with the UMass Drumline and Spartans Drum & Bugle Corps, was selected to receive the 2017-2018 Dr. Robert Hawkins Memorial Scholarship, administered by the John Philip Sousa Foundation and presented to an outstanding collegiate musician aspiring to become a band director or music educator.

In November, Thom Hannum ’84 MM was presented with the George N. Parks Leadership in Music Education Award by the National Association for Music Educators and Music for All. The award recognizes excellence in teaching and the ability to inspire qualities in students beyond achievement in music. In March, Thom was artist-in-residence at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore.

Julie Angelis Boehler ’94 recently played timpani at a recording session with renowned British composer Bob Chilcott and Choralis, a leading metropolitan-D.C. chorus, at the historic Church of the Epiphany. The recording featured a mix of new carols with fresh takes on some familiar Christmas favorites.

Clair Cangialosi ’17 was presented with a 2016 Student Pro­fessional Achievement Award by the National Association for Music Education, one of two students chosen nationally for this honor.

Gillian Desmarais ’17 was the collegiate winner of the 2016 National Association for Music Education Electronic Music Composition competition.

Sanford Jones ’98 lives in Dusseldorf, Germany, where he works as the community band director and Habitat for Humanity team leader at the International School of Dusseldorf. Previously, he taught for over 10 years in Israel, Qatar, and Germany. Sanford is an active member of the Association for Music in International Schools and returns to UMass every summer for the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy.

Michael Lacava ’92 recently accepted the position of K-12 director of performing arts for the Wellesley (Mass.) Public Schools. He continues to be an active clinician, adjudicator, and guest speaker throughout New England. Michael is an adjunct professor at Fitchburg State University, where he conducts the Concert Band and teaches graduate courses in arts leadership and management.

Tony Lechner ’93, ’97 MM has received inter­national acclaim for Under the Midnight Stars, an album of original jazz compositions featuring, among others UMass alumnus Alec Derian ’02, ’07, ’08MM. Songs from the album received recognition from the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (2011 Lennon Award for Jazz, 2012 Grand Prize for Jazz) and the Billboard World Song Contest (2010 Grand Prize for Jazz, 2011 Grand Prize, Instrumental). “Partiste” was also heard in the 2010 Para­mount Pictures release Dinner for Schmucks.

George Weremchuk ’85 invited fellow UMass alumnus David Pope ’95 to be a featured artist at the Central Florida SaxFest. David’s latest collaborative CD, Freedom Sounds, was released in April and serves as professor of saxophone/coordinator of woodwinds at James Madison University. Recently, he was on the faculty of Bangkok’s Asia Pacific Saxophone Academy and a jury member for the prestigious $100,000 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition.